Nor Republican #nevertrumpers with their heads screwed on straight if they are also #neverhillary.
As previously explained, barring some political blow-up, conservatives should not bolt the Trump ticket for 2016. It is an absolute that a win by Hillary Clinton or any Democrat president will lock in the Obamanation. The electoral college situation and the fight for the Senate are precarious. The Republic is at stake. Given both the dearth of alternatives from the moneyed elements behind the “dump Trump at the convention” talk, who, as our senior editor DLH has pointed out, are prone to insist on the likes of Mitt Romney, Mark Cuban, Lindsey Wagner Graham. For that and because of the demeanor of the Trump support we do not see “dumping Trump” as a viable alternative for conservatives vexed by his nomination.
Because of a variety of factors, it substantially risks more than it can gain. Dumping Trump will result in having to convince his substantial support that the action was needed, essentially attacking Trump, rather than focusing on the horrible reality of Democrats winning. Alternative third-party nominees offer conservatives either no practical safe haven, or worse, no ideological refuge. The later is especially true of the much talked about Libertarian Party option. Consider the following links and analysis:
The basic story for conservatives regarding the recent Libertarian Party nominating convention is reported in straight forward fashion at The Washington Free Beacon
Gary Johnson: I Agree With 73% of What Bernie Sanders Says
Mike Vespa writing at Town Hall gives a color report of the Libertarian convention, relying extensively on a Slate article, while disclaiming Johnson as a viable alternative for conservatives:
‘Honorable Alternative’ Gary Johnson Sides With Bernie Sanders 73 Percent Of The Time
Don Feder writing at GrasstopsUSA.com ridicules Johnson and the truly incredible choice of William Weld as his running mate. His article is set forth here in its entirety with permission.
The Libertarian Candidate for President – The ‘High’ Point of the 2016 Campaign
The media love a freak show, which is why the Libertarian Party always gets coverage disproportionate to its negligible impact. Now, the party has not one, but two former RINO governors on its national ticket and the mainstream media is: “Like, wow, man!”
Its presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, is a former two-term governor of New Mexico whose signature issue is legalized marijuana. Its candidate for vice president is Bill Weld, governor of Massachusetts almost 20 years ago. In Weld, Johnson has found a running mate to match his intellectual prowess.
In a June 7th interview, the scion Boston Brahmins compared a proposed barrier on our Southern border to the Berlin Wall. Back in the 1960s, little did we know that the communists put up their infamous wall to keep West Germans from illegally entering the German Democratic Republic, seeking a better life under Stalinism.
On to the main attraction, Gary – don’t bogart that joint, my friend – Johnson. In a June 7 story, The Washington Post hopefully noted that one poll had Johnson running at 10% in a trial heat with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It also found that only 18% knew he was running for president, and most of them had only a vague idea of who he is.
To be included in the presidential debates Johnson would need to be at 15% in the polls. That means he’d have to improve his 2012 showing by around 1,500%. Running against Obama and Romney that year, the former governor drew 0.99% of the national vote.
Johnson is a free-marketeer who’s hard left almost everywhere else (except on guns). The ACLU gives him a higher rating than any of the other presidential candidates. He’s pro-abortion, against the Patriot Act, and favors open borders, legalized euthanasia and an isolationist foreign policy. He’s opposed to voter ID, but wants ex-felons to be able to vote.
While claiming to be a constitutionalist, he believes in the mythical “separation of church and state” (words found nowhere in the Constitution) – a notion concocted by an activist judiciary. “I don’t think you’ll ever hear me invoking God in anything I do,” Johnson pledges. God is grateful.
On gay “marriage,” Johnson would out PC the Democrats. He not only endorses the SCOTUS decision, but has called for a constitutional amendment enshrining same, in case a future court comes to its senses.
Our peacenik president will leave America with a
hollow military. But Johnson wants less. (He’s pledged to cut defense spending by 43% in his first term.) If he has his way, we’ll have a military that can’t direct traffic in New York City.
Johnson opposed the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He would not defend America unless we were directly attacked – at which point it would probably be too late. He believes Iran isn’t a military threat to the United States and would use presidential power to prevent Israel from launching a preemptive strike against the mullahs. Hamas must be thrilled.
Most of his pronouncements sound like a cross between Bernie Sanders and Jerry Lewis:
• He claims that “prostitution is safer when it’s legal and regulated.” With every other business, libertarians tell us government regulations don’t work. But here government is a guarantor of safety and quality.
• “A bigger border fence will result in bigger ladders.” Naturally, the wall will be unguarded, so no one on the U.S. side will spot someone with a ladder on the Mexican side.
• He’s the CEO of a Nevada-based startup that plans to sell medical and “recreational” marijuana products, called Cannabis Sativa Inc. (He liked the product so much, he bought the company.) Johnson says his firm’s edible marijuana is a great alternative to a joint. Besides, “it’s just very, very pleasant. I mean, very pleasant.” In 2014, Johnson claimed marijuana had “efficacy with regard to treating Ebola.” It will also give you a thicker, fuller head of hair in just six weeks.
• “Marriage equality – I think that’s a constitutionally guaranteed right.” Does Gary believe that following the Civil War, Congress had men “marrying” men in mind when it passed the 14th Amendment – or, like utopians of the left, does he believe the Constitution means whatever he wants it to mean?
• When he went to New York City to check out the Occupy Wall Street Movement a few years back, Johnson was impressed. “What I found was pretty straightforward.” The protestors are against “a system that is being gamed for the benefit of a connected few.” Poor Gary can’t distinguish between opponents of corporate welfare and Marxist thugs who want to demolish capitalism.
• I’m in awe of libertarians’ grasp of history. Johnson discloses: “Every single figure on Mount Rushmore was a third party candidate at one time or another, so third parties become major parties, and I think that the Libertarian Party may become my major party.” There were no political parties when Washington became president. Thomas Jefferson had no party affiliation before he helped to found the Democratic-Republican (later the Democratic) Party. When Lincoln was a Whig, it was a major party. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was the Progressive Party’s presidential candidate. Thereafter, the party faded to oblivion.
• Organized in 1854, the Republican Party won the presidency six years later. The Libertarians ran their first presidential candidate in 1972. Almost a half-century later, they’ve won a dozen state legislative races – out of tens of thousands fought.
Libertarianism sounds great until you begin thinking about it. Like Marxists, libertarians never let reality interfere with ideology. If there was ever a country organized on libertarian principles, it would be as successful as Cuba, North Korea or Venezuela.
But the media think this could be a breakout year for Libertarians – that they could draw from both sides of the spectrum.
I can see it now. On the one hand, Johnson will get all of the conservatives who support abortion, legalized marijuana, gay marriage, open borders and Occupy Wall Street, while also appealing to the cut taxes, abolish the IRS, pro-Second Amendment liberals. They can rally at the headquarters of Virgins for Bill Clinton.
There’s been no shortage of political humor this year, but Gary Johnson is, like, a gas, man. Like the maple leaf on the Canadian flag, as president, perhaps he’ll replace the Stars and Stripes with a Cannabis plant. “I pledge allegiance to the United States of Puff the Magic Dragon….”
For the record, good conservatives have a libertarian streak, Libertarians do not necessarily agree with everything Johnson says, and there is a worthy distinction to be made as regards liberty interests and doctrinaire libertarianism.
R Mall
